How do I reinitialise a device ?

[deathrider 0]

I have a tape drive that I use for backups and occasionally it fails for various reasons. I kill the process but the device (/dev/st0) is still showing up as busy (mt status). The only way I have been able to get it back up and running is by rebooting the server. Is there a way to reinitialise the device so that a reboot is not required?

 

Thanks in advance.

[punkisdead 0]

What is your current working directory ( $PWD) when trying to umount the drive? Because if your directory is under the mount point when you try to umount it won't work..

[gfolkert 0]

a bit of sh work should fix your dilemma:

 

as root, do

Code:

lsof | grep -e "/dev/st0" | less

 

That should tell you the Process that still has the device open. If it iz zombie'd or won't die... a reboot is about the only thing you can do... Except editing memory space and hash tables manually....

 

But, I am guessing you are *NOT* a Expert UNIX GEEK like me with 15+ years of *NIX (DEC OSF/1, Tru64, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, BSDi, *BSD, IRIX, SunOS, Linux... etc...) I'd be nervous doing that...

[deathrider 0]

Thanks for your comments

 

I am not competent enough to edit memory space or hash tables (at least at this point in time).

 

Looks like a reboot is the only solution for me for the time being.